The Zoo Keeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

This was February's Book club book.  I would say that most of the group really enjoyed it.  It is the true story of a Polish family who ran the Warsaw zoo and hid numerous Jews within the zoo to save them from the holocaust.  It was a fascinating story but was told oddly.  The author would spend page after page on the minutae of the animal world and then in one sentence would gloss over a story of human tragedy or courage.  So much of the book I found myself thinking, WAIT!  Tell me more about that!!  Overall it is well worth the read and would inspire me to read more about particular incidents.  A good gateway book.

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

This was January's book club book. I would say that 90% of us liked it. However, you have to be hardy and courageous to get past the first couple chapters. Then, it's all good. Well, it's not, but it's not harrowing.

This story is about an Indian infant who is given up for adoption and her birth family and her adopted family. It was really good and really educational and I liked it a lot.

Her adopted family consists of an Indian man who lives in America with his American wife. Really worth your time.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

This was the October book for my book club (let me know if you want details on the book club. It is fabulous!). I liked this book but I did NOT like the main character. It is a great book for discussion IF you can get past the debate on stay-at-home vs. working mothers.

Sarah who is a fast-paced career woman and mother of 3 is in a car accident (DO not play with your phone while you drive!!). She emerges from the accident with a traumatic brain injury that leaves her suffering with 'Left Neglect'. Basically, her mind erases the left side of everything and then fills it in with a made up version which may or may not be accurate. So if she looks at an apple, she is seeing the real right-side of the apple and then her brain fills in what the left hand side SHOULD look like. So if the left hand side has a bite out of it, a worm hole or is filled with rot, she has no idea. However, the book isn't really about that. It is about her re-prioritizing her life with what she is able to do and reconnecting with the things in her life that HAD been neglected (her relationships with her family, etc.)

I think my book club as a whole really enjoyed this book. Lisa Genova (who is my facebook friend) is a beautiful writer. Frankly, I liked Still Alice better, but probably because I just didn't relate much to this book's main character. This was a great book though and I would recommend it.

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline

This book was a book club selection. Basic story: A woman who has an young, adopted son comes home one day to find a missing child flyer in the mail. The age-progressed picture on the flyer looks exactly like her son. She is a journalist, so she begins to investigate to find out who the missing child and if it could be her son.

I did NOT like this book. It is well-written but I found the story very contrived and complicated, beyond what is necessary.

Saving Ceecee Honeycutt

I love a good, southern, chick-lit book. This one does not disappoint. CeeCee is rescued from a cold, scary home and transported to the lovely south to live with her Great Aunt Tootie and Tootie's maid and best friend Oletta. She is surrounded by crazy southern ladies who are lovely and sweet and who you would love to sit on a porch and drink tea with.

There are,however, real issues in this book. Mental illness and how it is handled. The importance of community. The strength of women and the very real difference between the north and the south. I really liked this book.

The History of Love

Most of my book club didn't like this book. I did. It's a complicated story. Leo, a holocaust survivor lives in New York. He feels so alone, he constantly draws attention to himself to be sure he exists. The one thing he ever did in life was to love Alma. He wrote a book for her called The History of Love but it was lost in the horrors of the war. He also has a son with Alma who doesn't know that Leo exists.

Enter Alma Singer, who was named after Leo's Alma. Her parents read The History of Love in Spanish. Leo doesn't realize that his book has been published under another man's name. Alma Singer is trying to save her family. Her mother is depressed after the death of her husband, Alma's father and Alma's brother just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Eventally, the fates conspire to bring Leo and the second Alma together.

This is a lovely story. Sad but full of hope.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeanette Walls

Jeanette Walls' parents shouldn't have had children.
This book is horrifying in its details of her childhood. Her parents could at best be described as mentally unstable, completely self-absorbed and immature. There were images and stories in this book that I will never forget and will never be able to get out of my head. I hated this book and wish I could erase it from my mind. It was good for discussion, but it is kind of like seeing a car crash, you can't look away but wish you hadn't seen it.

Serena by Ron Rash

I LOVED this book. Others in book club did not. It is really creepy. The main characters are so troubled and interesting.

Here's the overview:

The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains--but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.
Rash's masterful balance of violence and beauty yields a riveting novel that, at its core, tells of love both honored and betrayed.